Peverley, Horton could swap spots on Bruins' lines

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins, who went through a major shake-up of their top three forward lines last week, should have a slight tweak to that alignment tonight when they host the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden.

During their morning skate, the Bruins went with the same alignment coach Claude Julien used in practice Wednesday, with Rich Peverley and Nathan Horton swapping their right-wing spots. So here's what the lineup would look like:

Milan Lucic - Chris Kelly - Tyler Seguin
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Rich Peverley
Benoit Pouliot - David Krejci - Nathan Horton
Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

In five games this season, Krejci has just one point (a goal). Horton has posted 2-2-4 totals in eight games, so there's hope that reuniting the center and the winger who clicked so well last season will get both going. The onus might be on Krejci, the playmaker, to get Horton going. But Krejci looks at it as more a mutually beneficial situation.

"Right now, I'm not going the way I want myself," said Krejci, who's only three games into his return from a core injury. "So it's good to have him on my line because we've done it before. Once one guy was down, the other guy helped him out. So hopefully we can build each other up and get back to our form."

On defense, Adam McQuaid has been cleared to play for the first time since suffering a neck injury in Carolina on Oct. 12. Julien said he would most likely play, which would make Steven Kampfer a healthy scratch. While Kampfer was hurt, fellow second-year pro Matt Bartkowski was holding down that sixth defense spot.

"Obviously his experience, when you compare him to the other two guys," said Julien about what McQuaid brings to the table. "He's a very physical player, great at winning battles in the corners. And when he's on top of his game, he makes a good first pass, keeps his game simple but very effective. And that's what Adam's brought to this team and that's why Adam was a big part of us winning last year because he brought that night in and night out."

Here's what the D pairs would look like :

Zdeno Chara - Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg - Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference - Adam McQuaid

While Tuukka Rask was the first goaltender off the ice, the Bruins as a team exited after the morning skate in a single file all at once. So we won't know if the Bruins are going with Rask or Tim Thomas until the pregame warm-up. Based on the current pattern, it would be Rask's turn because he has played every third game so far.